Using Data for Good

Brandon loves solving puzzles and building things. Practicing data science gives him the opportunity to do both in equal measure. Like most data scientists, Brandon came to the field indirectly. He started by studying robotics and human rehabilitation at MIT (MS '99, Ph.D. '02), moved on to machine vision and machine learning at Sandia National Laboratories, then to predictive modeling of agriculture DuPont Pioneer, and cloud data science at Microsoft. Now at Facebook Brandon works to get internet and electrical power to those in the world who don't have it, using deep learning and satellite imagery. In his spare time, Brandon likes to rock climb, write robot learning algorithms, and go on walks with my wife and our dog, Reign of Terror.

Presentation Description

With Crisis Response and Disaster Maps, Facebook is providing real-time support to disaster response and aid providers. I’ll share some examples of the information provided, the processing, algorithms and visualization methods behind it, and how the protection of people’s privacy is built in at every level. Our efforts give an end-to-end view of how real data makes the journey from raw information to help those who need it most.